In the bedding industry, the outer cover of a mattress or box spring may be quilted with any desired pattern. Some customers prefer a non-quilted covering. Such non-quilted coverings may be two or more layers laminated together.
One known method for forming a laminated product is to treat one surface of a sheet with an adhesive and pass that sheet with another sheet between compression rollers to compress the adhesive between the sheets. Such an apparatus takes up much floor space in a production facility.
The assignee of the present invention has invented an apparatus which reduces the amount of space necessary to laminate multiple materials together. In other words, the footprint of the apparatus is reduced. One such apparatus used by the assignee of the present invention utilizes a heated drum containing oil and an unheated belt. Two materials are passed between the heated drum and the unheated belt. However, one drawback to this apparatus is that only two layers may be secured together with a layer of adhesive between the two layers. During its travel, the belt loses any residual heat the moving belt may have retained from passing close to the heated drum. Consequently, the side of the layered stack closest to the belt is not heated enough to secure a third material to a cushioning material. The result is that assignee's known apparatus is only able to heat two layers together; no more.
Therefore, there is a need for a laminator which utilizes a heated belt and a heated drum to laminate more than two layers together.
There is further a need for a laminator which heats both sides of a layered stack of materials to laminate more than two layers together with more than one layer of adhesive.